Edvard Munch - Painter, Artist - Biography.com Edvard Munch Norwegian painter Edvard Munch is widely known for his iconic pre-Expressionist painting "The Scream" ("The Cry"). IN THESE GROUPS » quotes “For as long as I can remember, I have suffered from a deep feeling of anxiety which I have tried to express in my art.” “I have no fear of photography, as long as it cannot be used in heaven and in hell.” “Illness, insanity, and death were the black angels that kept watch over my cradle and accompanied me all my life.” “From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity.” Edvard Munch Synopsis Born in 1863 in Löten, Norway, famed painter Edvard Munch established a free-flowing, psychological-themed style all his own. His painting "The Scream" ("The Cry"; 1893), is one of the most recognizable works in the history of art. His later works proved to be less intense, but his earlier, darker paintings ensured his legacy.

A testament to his importance, "The Scream" sold for more than $119 million in 2012—setting a new record. Early Life and Education Edvard Munch was born on December 12, 1863, in Löten, Norway, the second of five children. In 1864, Munch moved with his family to the city of Oslo, where his mother died four years later of tuberculosis—he beginning of a series of familial tragedies in Munch's life: His sister, Sophie, also died of tuberculosis, in 1877 at the age of 15; another of his sisters spent most of her life institutionalized for mental illness; and his only brother died of pneumonia at age 30. In 1879, Munch began attending a technical college to study engineering, but left only a year later when his passion for art overtook his interest in engineering. In 1881, he enrolled at the Royal School of Art and Design. The following year, he rented a studio with six other artists and entered his first show, at the Industries and Art Exhibition.

Commercial Success Three years of study and practice later, Munch received a scholarship and traveled to Paris, France, where he spent three weeks. After returning to Oslo, he began working on new paintings, one of which was "The Sick Child," which he would finish in 1886. In what would be seen as the first work to represent Munch’s break from the realist style, the painting symbolically captures intense emotion on the canvas—specifically depicting his feelings about the death of his sister nearly nine years earlier. Skrik (The Scream) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons From 1889 (the year his father died) to 1892, Munch lived mainly in France—funded by state scholarships—embarking on the most productive, as well as the most troubled, period of his artistic life. It was during this period that Munch undertook a series of paintings he called the "Frieze of Life," ultimately encompassing 22 works for a 1902 Berlin exhibition. With paintings bearing such titles as "Despair" (1892), "Melancholy" (c.

1892–93), "Anxiety" (1894), "Jealousy" (1894–95) and "The Scream" (also known as "The Cry")—the last of which, painted in 1893, would go on to become one of the most famous paintings ever produced—Munch’s mental state was on full display, and his style varied greatly, depending on which emotion had taken hold of him at the time. The collection was a huge success, and Munch soon became known to the art world. Subsequently, he found brief happiness in a life otherwise colored by excessive drinking, family misfortune and mental distress. Edvard Munch Selvportrett (Self-Portrait) 1881-82. Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway Later Years and Legacy Success wasn't enough to tame Munch's inner demons for long, however, and as the 1900s began, his drinking spun out of control. In 1908, hearing voices and suffering from paralysis on one side, he collapsed and soon checked himself into a private sanitarium, where he drank less and regained some mental composure.

In the spring of 1909, he checked out, eager to get back to work, but as history would show, most of his great works were behind him. Munch moved to a country house in Ekely (near Oslo), Norway, where he lived in isolation and began painting landscapes. He nearly died of influenza in the pandemic of 1918-19, but recovered and would survive for more than two decades thereafter (he died at his country home in Ekley on January 23, 1944). Munch painted right up to his death, often depicting his deteriorating condition and various physical maladies in his work. In May 2012, Munch's "The Scream" went on the auction block, selling at Sotheby's in New York for more than $119 million—a record-breaking price—sealing its reputation as one of the most famous and important works of art ever produced. Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

Citation Information Edvard Munch Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works | The Art Story Web Services & Hosting by The Computer Studio | Designed by DesArtLab Impressionism Impressionism A movement in painting that first surfaced in France in the 1860s, it sought new ways to describe effects of light and movement, often using rich colors. The Impressionists were drawn to modern life and often painted the city, but they also captured landscapes and scenes of middle-class leisure-taking in the suburbs. Paul Gauguin Paul Gauguin Paul Gauguin was a French Post-Impressionist artist who employed color fields and painterly strokes in his work. He is best known for his primitivist depictions of native life in Tahiti and Polynesia. Expressionism Expressionism Expressionism is a broad term for a host of movements in early twentieth-century Germany and beyond, from Die Brücke (1905) and Der Blaue Reiter (1911) to the early Neue Sachlichkeit painters in the 1920s and '30s.

Many Expressionists used vivid colors and abstracted forms to create spiritually or psychologically intense works, while others focused on depictions of war, alienation, and the modern city. Symbolism Symbolism Symbolism is an artistic and literary movement that first emerged in France in the 1880s. In the visual arts it is often considered part of Post-Impressionism. It is characterized by an emphasis on the mystical, romantic and expressive, and often by the use of symbolic figures. Art Nouveau Art Nouveau Art Nouveau was a movement that swept through the decorative arts and architecture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Generating enthusiasts throughout Europe, it was aimed at modernizing design and escaping the eclectic historical styles that had previously been popular. It drew inspiration from both organic and geometric forms, evolving elegant designs that united flowing, natural forms with more angular contours. Vincent van Gogh Vincent van Gogh Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch painter, commonly associated with the Post-Impressionist period. As one of the most prolific and experimental artists of his time, van Gogh was a spontaneous painter and a master of color and perspective.

Troubled by personal demons all his life, many historians speculate that van Gogh suffered from a Bipolar disorder. Edouard Manet Edouard Manet Edouard Manet was a French painter and a prominent figure in the mid-nineteenth-century Realist movement of French art. Manet's paintings are considered among the first works of art in the modern era, due to his rough painting style and absence of idealism in his figures. Manet was a close friend of and major influence on younger artists who founded Impressionism such as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Post-Impressionism Post-Impressionism Post-Impressionism refers to a number of styles that emerged in reaction to Impressionism in the 1880s. The movement encompassed Symbolism and Neo-Impressionism before ceding to Fauvism around 1905. Its artists turned away from effects of light and atmosphere to explore new avenues such as color theory and personal feeling, often using colors and forms in intense and expressive ways.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a Post-Impressionist artist who depicted the dancers, prostitutes, drinkers, and other characters of fin-de-siecle Paris. He is known for his paintings, his caricatures of friends, and his well-designed posters for Parisian dance halls. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was one of the driving forces in the Die Brücke group that flourished in Dresden and Berlin before WWI, and one of the most talented and influential of the Expressionists. Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Kandinsky A member of the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter, and later a teacher at the Bauhaus, Kandinsky is best known for his pioneering breakthrough into expressive abstraction in 1913. His work prefigures that of the American Abstract Expressionists. Max Beckmann Max Beckmann Max Beckmann was a German artist, writer, and philosopher commonly associated with the Expressionist movement of the early twentieth century. He abhorred the label 'Expressionism', but juxtaposed scenes from reality by layering figures, colors, and shadows.

Fauvism Fauvism Fauvism was an early twentieth-century art movement founded by Henri Matisse and André Derain. Labeled as "wild beasts", Fauve artists favored vibrant colors and winding gestural strokes across the canvas. Surrealism Surrealism Perhaps the most influential avant-garde movement of the century, Surrealism was founded in Paris in 1924 by a small group of writers and artists who sought to channel the unconscious as a means to unlock the power of the imagination. Much influenced by Freud, they believed that the conscious mind repressed the power of the imagination. Influenced also by Marx, they hoped that the psyche had the power to reveal the contradictions in the everyday world and spur on revolution. Francis Bacon Francis Bacon Francis Bacon was an Irish-born, English painter and one of the twentieth century's most celebrated and controversial existentialist artists. Bacon favored dark subject matter, often painting slightly abstracted, biomorphic figures, with bodies contorted or in the throes of madness. Painterly themes of Bacon's include the crucifixion, isolation and the mind's fragility.

Bacon was also one of the few English artists of any prominence in modern and contemporary circles during the better part of the twentieth century. Georges Seurat Georges Seurat Georges-Pierre Seurat was a French painter who gave rise to the Post- and Neo-Impressionist artistic styles of the late nineteenth century. Seurat's greatest contribution to modern art was his development of Pointillism, a style of painting in which small dots of paint were applied to create a cohesive image. Combining the science of optics with painterly emotion, Pointillism evoked a visual harmony never before seen in modern art. Hans Jaeger Hans Jaeger Hans Jaeger was a Norwegian writer, philosopher, and anarchist who was also a member of the bohemian group, Kristianiabohêmen. Already sent to prison because of his book, Fra Kristiania-bohemen, Jaeger was forced to flee Norway after trying to circulate copies of it in Sweden. The writer was a friend of the artist Edward Munch, and the subject of one of his paintings. Christian Krohg Christian Krohg Christian Krohg was a Norwegian painter, illustrator, author, and journalist. A naturalist painter, Krohg preferred to depict scenes from everyday life.

He particularly liked to portray darker scenes, with his favorite subject being prostitutes. Additionally, he wrote about prostitutes in his book, Albertine, which scandalized his society and was confiscated by the police. Franz Marc Franz Marc Franz Marc was a German painter and printmaker, and one of the pioneers of German Expressionism. Along with August Macke and Kandinksy, Marc founded The Blue Rider artist group. A student of Futurism and Cubism, Marc was a master of color and depth, and a major influence on mid-twentieth-century abstractionists. Naturalism Naturalism As a distinct artistic medium, Naturalism began as far back as the Florentine School, with artists such as Botticelli and Michelangelo, and still survives to the present day. The term is meant to be self-explanatory, referring to the artist's depiction of realistic objects and settings, and their naturalistic movement. A common theme in naturalist paintings is nature's predominance over humankind. Pointillism Pointillism Pointillism is a mode of art-making, first developed in 1880s France, in which all of the paint is applied to the surface as tiny points or daubs of color.

Based on the laws of color theory, pointillism relies on the viewer's eye to mix the disparate dots into the lines, shapes, shadings, and color ranges of the full scene. Paul Klee Paul Klee The Swiss-born painter Paul Klee worked in a variety of styles, including Expressionism, geometric abstraction, and collage. His most famous works have a mystical quality and make use of linear and pictorial symbols. Henri Matisse Henri Matisse Henri Matisse was a French painter and sculptor who helped forge modern art. From his early Fauvist works to his late cutouts, he emphasized expansive fields of color, the expressive potential of gesture, and the sensuality inherent in art-making. August Strindberg August Strindberg August Strindberg was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, and painter who is considered the "father" of modern Swedish literature; his novel, The Red Room, the prototype for the modern Swedish novel. Strindberg brought Naturalism to the theater with his plays: The Father, Miss Julie, and Creditors. He had a prolific career and influenced many artists including Tennessee Williams, Ingmar Bergman, and Eugene O'Neill.

Max Linde Max Linde Max Linde was an ophthalmologist who was best-known for being a great art collector of the early twentieth century. Linde was a patron to many artists, and of particular importance to Edward Munch. Robert Rosenblum Robert Rosenblum Robert Rosenblum was an American art critic, curator and historian. His greatest contribution to the modern canon was his redefinition of Modern art history, offering that the era began not with Impressionism but with Neo-Classicists of the late eighteenth century. Edvard Munch Biography - life, childhood, death, wife, school, mother, son, information, born, time, scandal Edvard Munch Biography Oslo, Norway Norwegian painter and artist The Norwegian painter and graphic artist Edvard Munch illustrated man's emotional life in love and death. His art was a major influence of the expressionist movement, in which where artists sought to give rise to emotional responses. Early life Born on December 12, 1863, in Loieten, near Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway, Edvard Munch was the son of a military doctor.

Childhood experiences with death and sickness—both his mother and sister died of tuberculosis (an often-fatal disease that attacks the lungs and bones)—greatly influenced his emotional and intellectual development. This and his father's fanatic Christianity led Munch to view his life as dominated by the "twin black angels of insanity and disease." After studying engineering, Munch soon turned to art. In 1880 Munch began to study art and joined the realist painters (school of painters who sought to depict their subjects as realistically as possible) and writers of the Kristiania bohemian (fashionable and unconventional) circle. His ideas were strongly influenced at this time by the writer Hans Jaeger (1854–1910), who sought to establish an ideal society based on materialist atheism (not believing in material wealth) and free love. Jaeger's hopeless love affair with the wife of Christian Krohg, leader of the bohemian painters, and Munch's own brief affairs caused him to intensify the connection he saw between women, love, and death.

Munch's paintings during the 1880s were dominated by his desire to use the artistic vocabulary of realism to create subjective content, or content open to interpretation of the viewer. His Sick Child (1885–1886), which used a motif (dominant theme) popular among Norwegian realist artists, created through color a mood of depression that served as a memorial to his dead sister. Because of universal critical rejection, Munch turned briefly to a more mainstream style, and through the large painting Spring (1889), a more academic version of the Sick Child, he obtained state support for study in France. A change After studying briefly at a Parisian art school, Munch began to explore the possibilities made available by the French postimpressionists, a movement that looked to push impressionism beyond its limitations. The death of his father in 1889 caused a major spiritual crisis, and he soon rejected Jaeger's philosophy. Munch's Night in St. Cloud (1890) embodied a renewed interest in spiritual content; this painting served as a memorial to his father by presenting the artist's dejected state of mind.

He summarized his intentions, saying "I paint not what I see, but what I saw," and identified his paintings as "symbolism: nature Edvard Munch. Reproduced by permission of the Corbis Corporation . viewed through a temperament" (manner of thinking). Both statements accent the transformation of nature as the artist experienced it. In 1892 the Berlin Artists' Association, an official organization consisting primarily of German academic artists, invited Munch to exhibit in Berlin, Germany. His paintings created a major scandal in Germany's artistic capital, and the exhibition was closed. But Munch used the publicity to arrange other exhibitions and sell paintings; his art prospered and he decided to stay in Germany. He also began work on a series of paintings later entitled the Frieze of Life, which concentrated on the themes of love, anxiety, and death. To make his work accessible to a larger public, Munch began making prints (works of art that could be easily copied) in 1894. Motifs for his prints were usually derived from his paintings, particularly the Frieze.

The Frieze also served as the inspiration for the paintings he made for Max Linde (1904), Max Reinhardt's Kammerspielhaus (1907), and the Freia Chocolate Factory in Oslo (1922). Later years Following a nervous breakdown, Munch entered a hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1908. In the lithograph (a type of print) series Alpha and Omega he depicted his love affairs and his relationship to friends and enemies. In 1909 he returned to Norway to lead an isolated life. He sought new artistic motifs in the Norwegian landscape and in the activities of farmers and laborers. A more optimistic view of life briefly replaced his former anxiety, and this new life view attained monumental expression in the murals of the Oslo University Aula (1911–1914). During World War I (1914–18), when Germany led forces against the forces of much of Europe and the United States, Munch returned to his earlier motifs of love and death. Symbolic paintings and prints appeared side by side with stylized studies of landscapes and nudes during the 1920s.

As a major project, never completed, he began to illustrate Henrik Ibsen's (1828–1906) plays. During his last years, plagued by partial blindness, Munch edited the diaries written in his youth and painted harsh self-portraits and memories of his earlier life. He died in Ekely outside Oslo on January 23, 1944. For More Information Edvard Munch - Paintings,Biography,Quotes of Edvard Munch Edvard Munch of Edvard Munch Edvard Munch and his Paintings Edvard Munch is best known as being a Norwegian born, expressionist painter, and printer. In the late 20th century, he played a great role in German expressionism, and the art form that later followed; namely because of the strong mental anguish that was displayed in many of the pieces that he created. Edvard Munch was born in Norway in 1863, and was raised in Christiania (known as Oslo today). He was related to famous painters and artists in their own right, Jacob Munch (painter), and Peter Munch (historian).

Only a few years after he was born, Edvard Munch's mother died of tuberculosis in 1868, and he was raised by his father. Edvard's father suffered of mental illness, and this played a role in the way he and his siblings were raised. Their father raised them with the fears of deep seated issues, which is part of the reason why the work of Edvard Munch took a deeper tone, and why the artist was known to have so many repressed emotions as he grew up. In 1885, Edvard Munch traveled to Paris, and was extremely influenced by impressionism artists Claude Monet , Edouard Manet , and followed by the post-impressionism artists Van Gogh , Paul Cezanne , and Gauguin . In fact, the main style of Munch's work is post-impressionism , and focused on this style. From about 1892, to 1908, Munch split most of his time between Paris and Berlin; it was in 1909 that he decided to return to his hometown, and go back to Norway.

During this period, much of the work that was created by Edvard Munch depicted his interest in nature, and it was also noted that the tones and colors that he used in these pieces, did add more color, and seemed a bit more cheerful, than most of the previous works he had created in years past. The pessimistic under toning which was quite prominent in much of his earlier works, had faded quite a bit, and it seems he took more of a colorful, playful, and fun tone with the pieces that he was creating, as opposed to the dark and somber style which he tended to work with earlier on during the course of his career. From this period, up to his death, Edvard Munch remained in Norway, and much of his work that was created from this period on, seemed to take on the similar, colorful approach which he had adopted, since returning home in 1909. A majority of the works which Edvard Munch created, were referred to as the style known as symbolism. This is mainly because of the fact that the the paintings he made focused on the internal view of the objects, as opposed to the exterior, and what the eye could see.

Symbolist painters believed that art should reflect an emotion or idea rather than represent the natural world in the objective, quasi-scientific manner embodied by Realism and Impressionism. In painting, Symbolism represents a synthesis of form and feeling, of reality and the artist's inner subjectivity. Many of Munch's works depict life and death scenes, love and terror, and the feeling of loneliness was often a feeling which viewers would note that his work patterns focused on. These emotions were depicted by the contrasting lines, the darker colors, blocks of color, somber tones, and a concise and exaggerated form, which depicted the darker side of the art which he was designing. Munch is often and rightly compared with Van Gogh, who was one of the first artists to paint what the French artist called "the mysterious centers of the mind." But perhaps a more overreaching influence was Sigmund Freud , a very close contemporary. Freud explained much human behavior by relating it to childhood experiences. Munch saw his mother die of tuberculosis when he was 5, and his sister Sophie die of the same disease when he was 14.

Munch gives the By the Death Bed and Death in the Sickroom a universal cast by not specifically depicting what he had witnessed. Several versions of The Sick Child are surely his sister. Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye... it also includes the inner pictures of the soul.”- Edvard Munch Edvard Munch passed away in 1944, in a small town which was just outside of his home town in Oslo. Upon his death, the works which he had created, were not given to family, but they were instead donated to the Norwegian government, and were placed in museums, in shows, and in various local public buildings in Norway. In fact, after his death, more than 1000 paintings which Edvard Munch had created were donated to the government. In addition to the paintings that he had created during the course of his career, all other art forms he created were also donated to the government. A total of 15,400 prints were donated, 4500 drawings and water color art was donated, and six sculptures which Edvard Munch had created, were all turned over to the Oslo government, and were used as display pieces in many locations.

Due to the fact that all of this work which Edvard Munch had created, was donated to the Norwegian government, the country decided to build the Munch Museum of Art . This was done to commemorate his work, his life, and the generosity which he showed, in passing his art work over to the government, so that it could be enjoyed by the general public, rather than be kept locked up by the family. Although the art which he did donate, was spread throughout a number of museums and art exhibits, a majority of them were kept in Oslo. And, most of the works which were donated by Munch, were placed in the Munch Museum of Art, to commemorate the work he did, as well as the unique style, and the distinct movements which he introduced to the world, through the creations which he had crafted. MOST POPULAR PAINTINGS Edvard Munch: Beyond The Scream | Arts & Culture | Smithsonian Contact Privacy Policy Terms of Use Edvard Munch: Beyond The Scream Though the Norwegian artist is known for a single image, he was one of the most prolific, innovative and influential figures in modern art (National Museum of Art, Architecture, and Design/National Gallery, Oslo.

© 2006 Munch Museum/Munch-Ellingsen Group/Artists Rights Society, New York) By Arthur Lubow Smithsonian Magazine | Subscribe March 2006 Edvard Munch, who never married, called his paintings his children and hated to be separated from them. Living alone on his estate outside Oslo for the last 27 years of his life, increasingly revered and increasingly isolated, he surrounded himself with work that dated to the start of his long career. Upon his death in 1944, at the age of 80, the authorities discovered—behind locked doors on the second floor of his house—a collection of 1,008 paintings, 4,443 drawings and 15,391 prints, as well as woodcuts, etchings, lithographs, lithographic stones, woodcut blocks, copperplates and photographs. Yet in a final irony of his difficult life, Munch is famous today as the creator of a single image, which has obscured his overall achievement as a pioneering and influential painter and printmaker. From This Story [×] CLOSE Ashes (National Museum of Art, Architecture, and Design/National Gallery, Oslo.

Â© 2006 Munch Museum/Munch-Ellingsen Group/Artists Rights Society, New York) The Dance of Life (National Museum of Art, Architecture, and Design/National Gallery, Oslo. Â© 2006 Munch Museum/Munch-Ellingsen Group/Artists Rights Society, New York) Self Portrait (National Museum of Art, Architecture, and Design/National Gallery, Oslo. Â© 2006 Munch Museum/Munch-Ellingsen Group/Artists Rights Society, New York) Self Portrait (National Museum of Art, Architecture, and Design/National Gallery, Oslo. Â© 2006 Munch Museum/Munch-Ellingsen Group/Artists Rights Society, New York) Gauguin's Bid for Glory Munch's The Scream is an icon of modern art, a Mona Lisa for our time. As Leonardo da Vinci evoked a Renaissance ideal of serenity and self-control, Munch defined how we see our own age—wracked with anxiety and uncertainty.

His painting of a sexless, twisted, fetal-faced creature, with mouth and eyes open wide in a shriek of horror, re-created a vision that had seized him as he walked one evening in his youth with two friends at sunset. As he later described it, the "air turned to blood" and the "faces of my comrades became a garish yellow-white." Vibrating in his ears he heard "a huge endless scream course through nature." He made two oil paintings, two pastels and numerous prints of the image; the two paintings belong to Oslo's National Gallery and to the Munch Museum, also in Oslo. Both have been stolen in recent years, and the Munch Museum’s is still missing. The thefts have only added posthumous misfortune and notoriety to a life filled with both, and the added attention to the purloined image has further distorted the artist's reputation. With the aim of correcting the balance, a major retrospective of Munch's work, the first to be held in an American museum in almost 30 years, opened last month at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

"Everybody knows, but everybody doesn't know Munch," says Kynaston McShine, the MoMA curator-at-large who organized the exhibition. "They all have the idea that they know Munch, but they really don’t." The Munch who materializes in this show is a restless innovator whose personal tragedies, sicknesses and failures fed his creative work. "My fear of life is necessary to me, as is my illness," he once wrote. "Without anxiety and illness, I am a ship without a rudder....My sufferings are part of my self and my art. They are indistinguishable from me, and their destruction would destroy my art." Munch believed that a painter mustn't merely transcribe external reality but should record the impact a remembered scene had on his own sensibility. As demonstrated in a recent exhibition of self-portraits at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm and the Royal Academy of Arts in London, much of Munch's work can be seen as self-portraiture. Even for an artist, he was exceptionally narcissistic. "Munch's work is like a visual autobiography," McShine observes.

Although he began his artistic career as a student of Norwegian painter Christian Krohg, who advocated the realistic depiction of contemporary life known as Naturalism, Munch developed a psychologically charged and expressive style to transmit emotional sensation. Indeed, by the time he raised his brush to the easel, he typically no longer paid attention to his model. "I do not paint what I see, but what I saw," he once explained. Influenced as a young man by his exposure in Paris to the work of Gauguin and van Gogh, who both rejected the academic conventions of the official Salon, he progressed toward simplified forms and blocks of intense color with the avowed purpose of conveying strong feelings. In early 1890, in a huff, Munch quit the class of an esteemed Parisian painting teacher who had criticized him for portraying a rosy brick wall in the green shades that appeared to him in a retinal afterimage. In ways that antagonized the contemporary art critics, who accused him of exhibiting "a discarded half-rubbed-out sketch" and mocked his "random blobs of color," he would incorporate into his paintings graffiti-like scrawls, or thin his paint and let it drip freely.

The radical simplicity of his woodcut technique, in which he often used only one brilliant color and exposed the grain of the wood on the print, can still seem startlingly new. For the woodcuts, he developed his own method, incising the image with rough broad strokes and cutting the finished woodblocks into sections that he inked separately. His printmaking style, as well as the bold composition and color palette of his paintings, would deeply influence the German Expressionists of the early 20th century, including Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and August Macke. Characteristically, though, Munch shunned the role of mentor. He preferred to stand apart. "He wanted to be regarded as a contemporary artist, not an old master," says Gerd Woll, senior curator at the Munch Museum. He embraced chance fearlessly. Visitors to his studio were shocked when they saw that he had left his paintings out of doors in all kinds of weather. "From the first years, the criticism of Munch was that he didn't finish his paintings, they were sketches and starts," Woll says. "This was true, if you compare them to paintings in the Salon. But he wanted them to look unfinished.

He wanted them to be raw and rough, and not smooth and shiny." It was emotion he wanted to depict. "It's not the chair that should be painted," he once wrote, "but what a person has felt at the sight of it." One of Munch's earliest memories was of his mother, confined with tuberculosis, gazing wistfully from her chair at the fields that stretched outside the window of their house in Kristiania (now Oslo). She died in 1868, leaving Edvard, who was 5, his three sisters and younger brother in the care of her much older husband, Christian, a doctor imbued with a religiosity that often darkened into gloomy fanaticism. Edvard's aunt Karen came to live with the family, but the boy's deepest affection resided with Sophie, his older sister. Her death nine years later at age 15, also of tuberculosis, lacerated him for life. Dying, she asked to be lifted out of bed and placed in a chair; Munch, who painted many compositions of her illness and last days, kept that chair until his death.

(Today it is owned by the Munch Museum.) Single Page Previous Page 1 of 4 Next 1 2 3 4 Like this article? "The Scream" - Edvard Munch - Painting Location - Oslo, Norway - PopSpotsNYC.com To be notified of new PopSpots entries, follow PopSpotsNYC on Twitter: For questions or comments you can email me (Bob) here. "The Scream" (various media 1893-1910) - Edvard Munch - Painting Location: Oslo, Norway The Scream" - lithograph version from 1895. "The Scream" is one of the world's most recognizable works of art. It depicts a man in a private moment of anguished despair and anxiety, while the other people in the painting, perhaps his friends, seem blissfully unaware of the man's situation. The Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1863-1944) did several versions of "The Scream," an alter image for himself (more on this later), in oil, pastel,and litohgraph between 1893 and 1910.

This my favorite version because the stark contrast of the black-and-white lines mirrors the disconnect between the man's mood and the peaceful surroundings. The site of the painting is an overlook on the side of a road called "Valhallveien" on a hill above Oslo, Norway. The hill is known as Ekeberg Hill, Ekeberg being a neighborhood of Oslo just south of the city. The winding road up to the park on the top of Ekeberg Hill was a popular place for citizens of Oslo to view the city. The hill and park were also popular places for Oslo artists to paint. Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters! HOW I FOUND THE LOCATION (Not that I was the first - the Norwegians know it - but it doesn't seem too well-known outside Norway) First, a little background: The Wikipedia entry for "The Scream" pretty well sum's up what I've read of Munch's inspiration: "The original German title given to the work by Munch was Der Schrei der Natur (The Scream of Nature). The Norwegian word shrik is usually translated as scream but is (equivilent to) the English "shriek." Occasionally, the painting has been called The Cry.

In a page in his diary headed Nice 22.01.1892, Munch described his inspiration for the image: I was walking along a path with two friends - the sun was setting - suddenly the sky turned blood red - I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence - there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and he city - my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety - and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature." In addition, some scientists say there is a natural phenomenon that occasionally turns the sky over Oslo somewhat red, and that, is is thought, what gave Munch a panic attack. Whatever the cause, Munch really captured a feeling that everyone can relate to even if it's just, "Oh, S#*@!, I left the toaster on at home! You know the feeling. Looking at the image of "The Scream," it always seemed to me that the man screaming was on a long pier or the side of a bridge, both thoughts having to do with water, perhaps because there is a large body of water on which masted ships are sailing behind him.

So my initial thought was that the location was either a seacoast town in Norway or along a large Norwegian lake, as the sailboats seemed pretty big. Some other visual clues to the location: Besides the two tall-hatted men in the background, who seem oblivious to the situation, in the background you can also see the pointed steeple of a tall building, most likely a church, and to its right, some wavy lines suggestive of some other buildings. So I began my search on Google with the search terms "Munch The Scream location." But other than an occasional "on a road near Oslo" nobody seemed to write about the exact location. Then, I narrowed my search from regular Google to just Google Books, which bypasses random links about Munch and "The Scream" and focuses on those found in books. Eventually I found a book that said that the Munch set the painting on a road leading up a hill in Ekeberg, a neighborhood of Oslo, Norway. (The book was: "The Private Life of a Masterpiece" by Monica Bohn-Duchen.) Well, good enough. So I used Google Maps to go to Oslo, Norway.

First I saw that it was an inland city, which countered my impression that the water in the painting might be right next to the sea. All right, I thought, so maybe a lake. Then, when I zoomed in, I saw that the city was, in fact, really on the water and that what looked like the sea in "The Scream" was actually part of fjord, which is described as "a long, narrow inlet of the sea between steep cliffs." Zooming further into Oslo, I could see several of the coves of water that I would later discover were the two coves in the picture. I could also see the Oslo neighborhood of Ekeberg to the south, the one with the hill from which the painting was made. I then searched Google Images to see what clues I could find about the tall church church steeple in the painting. The tallest building in Oslo turned out to be the Oslo Cathedral, which had the same basic shape of the steeple in the background of "The Scream." So I figured that was the tower.

I also located the Oslo Cathedral on Google StreetView but, after searching the vicinity, could not find any other really tall buildings that might have been represented by the the squiggly lines to the right of the Cathedral tower in "The Scream." Had the "tall buildings" been to the left of the Cathedral, the squiggly lines might have represented the Royal Palace (see below). Note that Oslo was named Christiania (sometimes with a K) back in the day. Oslo is easier to spell. Thank you, Norway. As I was doing this research, I ran across a close-up photo of a copper plaque for "The Scream." It was on a blog, together with some shots from a mountain looking down into Oslo, so I figured the plaque had something to do with the hill in Ekeberg. "The Scream," to reiterate, is called The Shriek in Norway, and spelled similarly. I also ran across this photo of a road running next to a fjord near Oslo, with a fence that looked very much like that in "The Scream." So I knew I was geting closer, as things were starting to fit together.

Now, knowing that in the painting, the 2 coves of water would be to the left and the Cathedral would be to the right, I zoomed in on Ekeberg Hill to see where Munch might have been standing while he looked out and painted the scene, while looking northwest to Oslo. On the side of the hill closest to Oslo was a winding road; so I chose a section of the road closest to Oslo and dragged the little orange Street View Man down to the road. And closer... I "landed" on a highway with Oslo off in the distance. To the left of the city, I could see two coves of water that matched those in the painting. "Pretty Cool. So it's not a lake after all. It's a bay! I said to myself. And in the center of the scene (by blowing the picture up huge), I could also see the Cathedral Steeple. "The PopSpot eagle has landed!" I told myself.

And, looking at the same view, in close up, with better contrast...." Also noticeable in the scene was a metal railing alongside the sidewalk that very much resembled the wooden-looking railing that was in the picture next to the fjord and that I had always thought was the side of a pier. The metal bands must be the modern replacement for the wood. Now, using Google StreetView I "clicked" my way up the highway a bit to see the view of the city from a diferent angle. And... what should I come up upon at the end of the overlook? - the "SHREIK" plaque! It was on a small concrete wall off the side of the road. If I had any doubts that this as the place where the painting was set, they were over now. This was a plaque-certified, offical Norwegian PopSpot already. So I backed up a little to get back where I had been. To refresh your memory: Here's where I was on the mountain road - with an arrow pointing to downtown Oslo. And here's the angle of what you see in back of the man in The Scream.

I'll illustrate it two ways: The first makes it easier to see the coves in the background (The picture's not clear enough to make out the Cathedal but it's there in the right place... And the second photo, in true "this-is-the-spot" Popspots overlay style. Voila! Now, as I mentioned, in addition to "The Scream, Munch created a variety of similar themed painting about states of anxiety from this point of view overlooking Oslo during the years between 1893 to 1910. Along with the diferent versions of The Scream, they were part of a series called "The Frieze of Life." Here are some of the others, in chronological order. (I may be missing some.) The Scream - 1893 - oil, tempura, and pastel on cardboard. The National Gallery, Oslo, Norway) Despair - oil on canvas from 1894 Despair - also 1894

Question: What nationality was the painter Edvard Munch
Answer: Norwegian